Office 365 Tales from the Trenches

Microsoft Office and SharePoint have been the go-to solutions for delivering the best combination of productivity, collaboration, and communication. But it doesn't always make sense to confine Office and SharePoint to the desktop, so companies big and small are discovering the value of Office 365 for delivering anywhere access to familiar applications from a range of devices, with a central administration point.

While organizations point to specific improvements in productivity, cost savings, and ease of administration, most are still pushing to find the limits of this flexible cloud solution. So we decided to do something a little different in this
TechNet Feature package, and share some real-world Office 365 experiences.

Smaller organizations like
Kügele Profile saw an immediate 30-percent improvement in productivity using the cloud-based services, such Lync Online messaging, Exchange Online, and SharePoint. Moreover, they reduced costs by 30 percent, but that is just the beginning for the Austrian metal profile manufacturer. The company plans to federate with manufacturers in other countries so that employees can share presence information and calendars with its partners, and continues to build processes and workflows in SharePoint Online to further improve processes.

Larger companies like
MedcoEnergi are also able to reduce costs and provide more flexible communications capabilities with Office 365. The energy company with operations in seven countries frequently acquires new companies, and it was concerned about the time and effort to transition new employees over to its messaging and collaboration solutions. For its employees, the changes to the messaging solution are mostly transparent, and they have access to all of the same unified communications capabilities they use every day. For its IT team, Office 365 provides the same web-based administration capabilities as Exchange Server and Lync Server.

Other organizations have avoided hardware costs while also reducing IT administration costs.
Scripps Networks Interactive - with popular lifestyle television and internet brands, such as HGTV, DIY Network, Food Network, Cooking Channel, and Travel Channel - is making the transition to Office 365 and anticipates the solution will help its IT staff better manage its infrastructure with more administrative controls. It also expects employee productivity to improve because of the way the online services in Office 365 work with Office 2010 to offer new messaging and communication capabilities.

Speaking of better administration, if you are a Windows PowerShell user or even a complete newbie, TechNet Magazine's Geek of All Trades Greg Shields offers a guide to
Manage Office 365 with Windows PowerShell.

Ready to share your own Office 365 experience? Then get on
The Grid and join the community of top-notch IT pros and other experts. While you are there, pull up Jorge R. Diaz's post
Office 365 - Real-Life Scenarios.